Which means most people watching this show either went through birth without the support of their spouse, were not allowed to support their spouse during the birth of their child, or their own mother’s went through that during their birth.Ī future where the husbands were always present for the birth was still a little crazy to consider in the late 1980s. Having the child’s father present for the birth only began to happen in the 1970s and 1980s. So many of the couples watching the show would have had to go through labor without having/being allowed to support their spouse regardless of their wishes.

Women (and many men) fought for decades with hospitals to even have men allowed in the delivery room during the early stages of labor, which can last for several hours, and hospitals only began to give in to their requests in the 1960s but even then they would be kicked out of the room by hospital staff before the actual birth took place. Star Trek the Next Generation was made in 1987, this particular episode I believe aired in 1988 a time when a future where the husband was always present for the birth would have been amazing to many of the people watching the show as men had only been allowed to be present for the birth of their children for 10/15ish years at that point in the US.

I while understand the frustration with erasure sometimes it helps to look at things through the cultural context of when something was made.